“Michelle isn’t going to find someone else,” I snap.Over our decaying corpse!Mean Daisy agrees. “I’m her best friend.”
Throwing his hands up, Giulio turns and stalks away from me. I watch him go, my eyes dropping to the cut of a pair of dark gray sweatpants similar to the ones I’m wearing. His ass looks good in them. His body moves with lithe ease, like a man comfortable in his own skin.
I bet he’d look just as good naked.That thought, surprisingly, doesn’t come from Mean Daisy, but from somewhere inside of me that I hadn’t known had perked up and taken notice of the man who, for all intents and purposes, is holding me against my will.
If he’s hot, though, does that make it okay?I look to Mean Daisy for an answer. She just shakes her head and poofs back out of existence without a single helpful answer. Unhelpful bitch.
Getting up off the couch, I shuffle all the papers he’s shown me to the side and leave them resting on the cushion. The credit cards, including a black Amex, with the name Giulio La Rose printed in fancy script across them—no plain print for Mr. Cheesecake Rich—go on the coffee table before I follow after him.
I find Giulio in a big room down the hall. Though it’s not nearly as large as the living space I just left, it’s spacious and open with a wall of bookshelves to the right behind a large, ornate desk and the same wall of glass windows that were in the living area. Giulio stands in front of the windows looking out over the vast skyline of New York with all of its high-rises and skyscrapers. As I slowly approach, my eyes fall automatically to the square of green that’s visible from here.
With all of the concrete and glass that make up the city, Central Park is like a beacon for those still wanting to rememberwhat it’s like to live on Earth and not a damn city space station. This view, though, looking down over it to see the bright shirts of joggers passing through and the broccoli-shaped little trees, makes it feel like I’m standing on top of the world. I cast a look at the man who stares at it without a single hint of emotion on his face.
How often does he look at it? Has he ever gone down there? Been to Central Park and just sat under the sun, petting the occasional dog that wanders away from its owner in the early morning hours?
At first, I don’t say anything. A part of me wants to give him his space as he’s obviously annoyed by me, but I’ve never been good at letting things lie and staying quiet. So, instead of just backing out of the room, I move further into it and come up to stand at his side until I’m so close to the glass wall of windows that I can practically fog the surface with my breath.
“Pretty,” I murmur. “Isn’t it?”
He doesn’t immediately look at me. I know because I watch him out of the corner of my eye, waiting to see what he’ll do or say. I’m hyperactive and more than a little ditzy, even I have to admit that, but I’m not so stupid that I can’t understand that Giulio La Rosa isn’t like me.
I’m so out of my damn league.
“You are an innocent in all of this,” Giulio finally says, surprising me enough that I turn to look up at him. He keeps his eyes trained on Central Park down below. “But like it or not, you are in it now. We are married. Your life is no longer the one you knew, and it’s time you accept that. I know you wish to keep your friend, and I won’t stop you from seeing her, but youshould know that the more often you see her, the more she will be placed in danger.”
I consider his words for what feels like forever.Is it better if I give Michelle up? Should I just let her go so she’ll be safe?I can just imagine trying to explain that to her. A snort rises up out of me before I can stop it.
Whirling toward him completely, my hand whips up and slaps over my mouth. “I’m sorry!” I say behind my fingers. “That was an accident.”
With a scowl, he, too, turns to face me. His hands come down to grip my upper arms, and I drop my palm away from my lips. Even mad, he’s still ruggedly hot. Masculine.Sexy. Jesus, when was the last time I got laid?Before I can recall the answer, Giulio shakes me slightly, causing me to rock on my heels a bit as I stare, wide-eyed, up into a face etched with anger and something else.
“Do you truly not understand the gravity of your situation, Daisy?” he demands. “Someone killed my fiancée because they wanted to stop me from becoming Don Luciani’s official right hand. Getting rid of you might not reverse the decision to place his trust in me, but it will certainly call into question my ability to protect those under my care.”
Something hits me then. Even if it was obvious that Giulio was only marrying his original bride for his position, he must still feel guilty for her death. Reaching up, I clasp a hand around one of his where it rests on my bicep.
“Giulio,” I say soothingly, “I’m fine. Trust me, I’m not interested in dying any time soon. I wouldn’t have married you if I was suicidal.” Mean Daisy chooses that moment to pop backout of the darkness and side-eye me for that comment. I ignore her and focus only on the man in front of me. “I promise to be careful,” I assure him. “You’re right that I’m a little out of my depth, but I wouldn’t have made it this long on my own by being a complete idiot.”
His lashes lower as he closes his eyes, and when he reopens them, his grip eases ever so slightly, distracting me from my circling thoughts. “You’ve only been in the city for a year or so,cara,” he murmurs. “That doesn’t make you an expert.”
I’m sure “cara” is an Italian endearment, but considering his highly strung emotions right now, I try not to let my heart beat any faster at the kindness. We’re marriage partners, captor and captive in a way. Maybe we can be friends, but just because I wear his wedding ring doesn’t mean that he actually cares about me.
“You’re right,” I tell him again. Men like to hear it when they’re right, so I hope saying as much will get him to calm down. “And considering I haven’t managed to even get an interview for any publishing house in the twelve or so months I’ve been here, I can see why you might think I’m ignorant, but—”
“I didnotsay that,” he growls.
I pat his hand again, deftly trying not to notice how big and strong those are, too. He drops them away from my arms completely, taking a full step back. “I know you didn’t,” I say in what I hope is a soothing tone. “What I’m trying to say is that we’re in an impossible situation, you and I, but you can’t tell me that this is going to last forever.”
When his lips part, I hold up a hand. He blinks as if shocked by the silent command. Ha! I bet few people have ever bossedhim around. MaybePapáStefano or even Dante, but anyone else? Nah, I can’t see it. I’d bet my left tit—a.k.a. the biggest one and therefore my favorite—that anyone who’s tried has ended up with brand-new concrete swimming shoes. Being the wife of a mafia man gives me a few perks, I guess.
“I’m grateful that you decided not to kill me,” I tell him. “I mean, I know you only married me to get a… promotion?” I arch a brow, but when he doesn’t answer the slight question at the end of my words, I shrug and continue forward. No time like the present and all that. “But we both know you have no intention of remaining saddled with a girl like me for the rest of your life.”
Divorce. Annulment. Call it whatever you want, but I’m not so naive as to think he’s planning to stay with me forever, especially not with how we started.
Shockingly, though, Giulio doesn’t appear assuaged by my words. In fact, his expression darkens as his brows lower and he steps closer. The spicy hint of his cologne invades my nostrils.God, has he always smelled that good?Mean Daisy fans herself in the corner of my mind.
“And just what kind of girl have I married, Daisy?” Giulio asks.
Blinking up at a face that makes no effort to hide his anger, I offer him the only answer I have. “A nobody,” I hear myself say as if the words are coming from down a long, dark tunnel. “I’m nobody compared to you, Giulio. I don’t have money or even a good job.” No prospects of one, either, if the list of rejection letters sitting in my inbox is anything to go by. “We don’t know each other that well, but I know I bring nothing to the table forthis relationship. I just appreciate that you chose it instead of getting rid of me.”
